The European Parliament has no desire to delay the implementation of the Next Generation EU recovery plan or to start an institutional dispute with the European Commission or the Council of the EU, but it does intend to exercise its democratic control over the use of the EU budget via national recovery plans, which it believes will ensure the acceptance of this initiative by citizens.
During a debate in the plenary session of the European Parliament on Tuesday, 18 May, Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany) declared with regard to the European Recovery Plan, “Parliamentary scrutiny is crucial for its democratic legitimacy” and “its visibility” to the general public. He called for “more transparency” from the European Commission so that MEPs will be able to do their jobs in the best possible conditions.
On behalf of the Renew Europe group, Romanian Dacian Cioloș emphasised how important it is for the European Parliament to analyse the European dimension of Next Generation EU. “Yet, we do not have this European dimension”, he felt. In the same vein, Greens/EFA Co-Chair Philippe Lamberts of Belgium indicated that rapid implementation of the recovery plan was “not incompatible with democratic control” by the European Parliament.
Raffaele Fitto (ECR, Italy) and Dimitrios Papadimoulis (The Left, Greece) lamented that this role of the European Parliament is all the more important as, in many EU countries, national parliaments and local and regional authorities have been sidelined.
In a draft resolution to be adopted on Thursday, MEPs call on the European Commission to provide comparable information on national plans as well as a preliminary assessment of these plans before the European Commission recommends their adoption by the Council of the EU. This approach would, in their view, greatly facilitate interinstitutional dialogue on the European Recovery Plan.
Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis gave his assurance that the European Parliament and the Council of the EU would have the same level of information on national recovery plans. However, he warned that a summary containing the main measures of these plans will only be available when the European Commission sends its draft recommendations to the Council of the EU.
On behalf of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva cautioned the European Parliament against sending information requests that would arrive “too soon”. According to him, the Council of the EU expects the European Commission to submit an update of its analysis in preparation for the June Ecofin Council and wants to adopt the first national plans “in June” as well.
See the European Parliament’s draft resolution: https://bit.ly/3wfi10W (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)